Unbound Commerce launches 120 retailers into m-commerce in 2013

The mobile platform vendor is the power behind 400 mobile commerce sites for smartphone shoppers and, with a new offering, four tablet sites. Its biggest client, Finish Line, saw mobile conversion rates double last year after making changes to navigation and calls to action, Unbound says.

Retailers were knocking down the doors at m-commerce platform provider Unbound Commerce last year, clamoring for m-commerce sites to serve the ever-increasing number of shoppers on smartphones. The vendor, an early player in mobile commerce, launched 120 retailers into mobile in 2013, a record for the company, which says it has more than 400 retailer clients.

Unbound Commerce expanded last year to include building dedicated tablet sites. Tablet traffic is surging, and tablet shoppers are more likely than smartphone shoppers to convert into buyers, numerous studies find. The mobile vendor helped men’s fashion retailers Patrick James and Westport Big & Tall simultaneously launch tablet and mobile sites for the 2013 holiday season. Unbound Commerce has built four tablet sites so far, it reports.

While costs vary based on the size of a retailer and the number of mobile page views per month, a typical Unbound Commerce m-commerce site for smartphones costs between $25,000 and $35,000 to build plus a monthly fee of around $500, the company says.

In addition to launching 120 new mobile commerce sites in 2013, Unbound Commerce worked with existing customers to improve their mobile sites. For example, the vendor helped Finish Line make changes to the merchant’s m-commerce site, including decreasing the number of steps in the navigation process, cleaning up site layout, and reprioritizing the placement of calls to action, all based on extensive A/B testing. After the changes were implemented, Finish Line saw its mobile conversion rate double, Unbound Commerce says.

“This is the fourth year we’ve partnered with Unbound to give our mobile customers what they want,” says Jimmy Montague, mobile lead at Finish Line, No. 108 in the 2014 Internet Retailer Mobile 500. “Every year we’ve been able to add features and increase conversions.”